AuthorTopic: HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSAY WOODSTOCK!! (Read 10765 times)

The Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, which was held 40 years ago in Bethel, New York, was the embodiment of the peace and hippie movement and provided a triumphant exclamation point for the 1960s. Yes, there were crippling traffic jams and plenty of drugs, nudity, rain and mud. But there was also the music – three days of iconic performances from an unprecedented array of artists, including the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, the Band, Santana, Arlo Guthrie, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Winter, Sly and the Family Stone, Joan Baez, Richie Havens and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

"This is a walk down the road trip, you know? Incredible! I heard the New York State Thruway's closed. Isn't that far out?"

"I don't know if you could ahhh....I don't know like how many of you can dig how many people there are, man. Like I was rappin' to the fuzz. haha. Right, can you dig it? Man, there's supposed to be a million and a half people here by tonight! Can you dig that? The New York Sate Thruway's closed, man! haha. Yeah, it's far out, man! Lotta freaks!"

I read an article in the newspaper over here last weekend and they stated that most of the myth of Woodstock is a legacy of the film that was made (and Martin Scorcese was involved). They way it was cut was an important thing. In the film, it looked as if Jimi Hendrix was the highlight of the festival. He was supposed to be, but because of numerous delays he did not perform until Monday in front of 'just' 10,000 people. Most of the audience had left by then. The film also showed about half of the groups that performed. A lot of people don't know that CCR was on Woodstock as well, but they didn't give permission to use the footage in the film.

When you look at Woodstock realistically, you've gotta wonder if it really was all that great to be there. The sound was terrible (designed to reach 200.000 people at best), by many accounts most of the bands really didn't perform that well, there was some pretty bad weather, there was hardly anything to eat or drink, there hardly were decent toilets, in the end they were about half a day behind scedule, there was such a huge traffic jam that there were probably more people that didn't make the festival than people that did... If you'd have such a festival now, you'd probably have a HUGE riot and police shutting everything down.

But than again, the fact that that didn't happen is probably what made Woodstock so cool.

What's tragic by the way is that Max Yasgur (who owned the farm where the festival was held) was pretty much destroyed by the festival. His farm was ruined and he became an outcast in his town because everyone hated him for bringing the festival to Bethel. He died in 1973, just 53 years old.

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But above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I God Bless You for it!

I've seen the film , can't say i was that impressed with the performances apart from Joe Cocker .Suppose it's a nice time piece though .Not a big Stones fan but there free concert in Hyde Park i think it was , is a better closer to the 60's ?

I think Woodstock became so legendary for three reasons:1. Incredibly line-up.2. Half a million people showed up.

And probably the most important reason: 3. Half a million people piled up under pretty miserable conditions but hardly any incidents. That probably gave people the impression that a world of love and peace was possible.

....there was such a huge traffic jam that there were probably more people that didn't make the festival than people that did...

I can confirm that, Joost. I made it as far as Monticello on Saturday that weekend. Route 17B out to Bethel was closed. There were cars parked on the road that far away (about 10 miles)! There were a ton of people in Monticello and I met a girl named Barbara there. We decided to walk out to the festival site. We stopped in Mongaup Valley about 4 miles from Bethel. We kind of liked each other and decided to go riding instead. I knew a stables nearby as well as the trails in that area. So we had a good time horseback riding in the country that day. We had no idea at the time that the Woodstock Festival would become iconic. It was just a typical hot, rainy summer weekend in the Catskill Mountains. There was a concert in Bethel that we didn't have tickets for.

Bobber, Barbara attended the same college I did, New York University, but she was downtown at Washington Square while I attended the University Heights campus in The Bronx. We dated for a few months during the fall semester. The realization set in several weeks later that we missed a big event. But we took solace in the fact that we were in the Bethel area and, in a way, still part of the celebration. Barbara and I enjoyed wooded trails in the country while others enjoyed music.

Cor, you had me thinking about that weekend all day! My cousin Norman and his girlfriend went to Bethel earlier in the week. I was supposed to meet them there. He parked his car along the road up on the rise you see in the upper right of the picture I posted. He figured it would be well out of the way. When they got back to the car on Monday, the hood, roof and rear deck were caved in. People were sitting or standing on the car all weekend. It was a brand new Mercury Cougar.

We are stardust....billion year-old carbonWe are golden.....and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Woodstock

Beautiful words! I was thinking about Joni Mitchell's words to Woodstock today. We are indeed "stardust" comprised of carbon-containing molecules formed several billion years ago (Joni was off by a few billion years). I was also thinking of the Bible's "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." I'm pretty sure Joni was referring to the allegorical Garden of Eden, creation of life and universal brotherhood of man.

Cor, I'm happy that this "carbon unit" is around 40 years later to share my memories on this Forum.